|
What is Chiropractic?
Chiropractic is one of the western world's three major healing professions. The other two are medicine and osteopathy. Chiropractors specialize in detecting and correcting vertebral subluxations, or misalignments of the spine. Subluxations adversely affect the nervous system and cause disease within the body.
The word Chiropractic comes from the Greeks: “chiros” means hand and “practice” means practice. Many Chiropractic techniques involve the use of the hands in gently restoring the vertebrae to their proper alignment and motion. Free of subluxations, you are free to grow, develop, and become more than you are today. Chiropractic is a lifestyle that more and more people are choosing for the rest of their life. Many parents are discovering that their children are healthier and happier when they receive regular Chiropractic care.
What do Chiropractors do?
Chiropractors locate interference in the nervous system using diagnostic tools such as the patient history, x-rays, posture analysis, computer imaging, range of motion, orthopedic tests, nerve reflexes, assessment of trigger points and muscular imbalances, and analysis techniques unique to Chiropractic. Correcting interference in the nervous system by using specific Chiropractic adjustments leading to better joint function, muscle balance, and nerve function.
What are the Principles of Chiropractic?
The following are the Three Fundamental Principles of Chiropractic:
1. Importance of the nervous system:
The nervous system controls and coordinates ALL the functions of the body. Everyone has the inborn ability to heal themselves as long as there is no interference with their nervous system, and therefore in their body's function.
2. Spinal subluxations (misalignments):
Chiropractic doctors recognize that vertebral subluxations cause interference of the nervous system impeding the perfect expression of health. Subluxations may or may not cause pain or other symptoms. Chiropractors are the only health care providers who specialize in locating, correcting, and preventing subluxations.
3. Chiropractic Adjustments:
Chiropractic doctors recognize that when spinal nerve interferences are cleared by means of specific Chiropractic adjustments of vertebral subluxations, the nervous system's normal flow of impulses can resume. The fully functioning nervous system can once again direct the body's own healing mechanisms and help in the process of attaining optimum health.
Why is the nervous system so important?
Your brain, spinal cord, and nerves coordinate and control every cell, tissue and organ in the body and adapt them to their internal and external environment. If the nervous system is not responding properly, the body will not perform at 100% as nature intended. The result? Reduced immune function, disease, fatigue, premature aging, stress, poor metabolism, hormonal imbalance, difficulty concentrating, muscle and joint dysfunction, etc.
What is a Subluxation?
Interference to the nervous system caused by chemical, emotional, and physical stress leading to the body's inability to regulate, heal, repair, and regenerate its cells, tissues, and organs for optimal function.
What causes Subluxations?
STRESS!
There are three basic causes of subluxations: physical, emotional, and toxic traumas. Physical causes could include the birth process, slips, falls, accidents, repetitive motions and improper lifting. Emotions such as grief, anger and fear can cause subluxations. Toxic or chemical causes could include alcohol, drugs, pollution, and poor diet. Each of these traumas can put unwanted stress on your spine and alter the process of proper nerve flow and body function.
What is a Chiropractic Adjustment?
A Chiropractic adjustment is the art of introducing a specific force in a precise direction, applied to a vertebra that is subluxated or out of place. The Chiropractor identifies the location of the subluxation, determines the exact direction and the best way to correct the positioning.
The adjustment itself is a movement of the spine that is done either by hand or with an instrument. The movement may be quick or may be undetectable with low force techniques. The adjustment assists the vertebra back into normal alignment and restores proper motion in order to relieve nerve interference. There are many ways to analyze and adjust the spine, so the actual adjustment will vary from Chiropractor to Chiropractor and patient to patient.
Can I adjust myself?
No. Some people can make their joints ‘pop’, but that's not an adjustment! Worse, damage can occur by INDISCRIMINATELY mobilizing a joint, causing ligaments to stretch and weaken. The body will build up bone in these weakened ligaments over time to stabilize itself, causing osteoarthritis. Chiropractic adjustments are specific and take years to master. Only the spinal joints that are “locked up” receive adjustments allowing weakened muscles and ligaments to stabilize and heal in the right position.
Are adjustments dangerous?
My malpractice insurance premium per year is less than $1,000. A general practitioner MD pays at least $30,000 per year. Insurance companies base their premiums on how risky it is to insure a person or profession. Based on these figures, whose office poses a greater risk? My car insurance costs more than my malpractice insurance!
What is that popping sound?
First of all, it is not your bones cracking. As bones separate lubricating fluids and gases come between each joint. Some adjusting methods can produce a sound when the gas and fluids in the joint shift. It's like opening a bottle of champagne or removing a suction cup. The sound is interesting, but it is not a guide to the quality or value of the adjustment. Segments can be adjusted into place without any sound at all. As more space increases between the joints with adjustments (this is good) you may even feel releases with normal movements.
What is not want is the sound of Grinding with normal motion. This is usually associated with degeneration of bones that have been out of alignment for some time.
Is Chiropractic Safe?
Yes! Specific Chiropractic adjustments are very safe. Care is individually based only after a complete health history and Chiropractic examination has been performed. Then, depending on the state of health and age of the patient, an appropriate technique will be utilized.
In the pediatric population a peer reviewed study of the literature (Pistolese R. JVSR 2(2) 1998) was performed from 1977 to 1998 and found the risk to neurological or vascular complications from Chiropractic care to be 1/250 million. It is important to compare this with something like the risk of serious adverse injury from taking an aspirin at 4/1000.
(A New Zealand government study found that adjustments are “remarkably safe”. By avoiding drugs and risky surgery, Chiropractic enjoys an excellent track record. In the adult population, unfortunately anyone who manipulates and injures a patient gets lumped in as a "Chiropractic" statistic versus keeping professions as separate populations. This poses a problem for the Chiropractors who perform specific Chiropractic adjustments. Presently the cumulative risk from the professions who manipulate and adjust is approximated at between 1/3 million to 1/500,000.)
Also consider that Chiropractic malpractice insurance rates are a fraction of those for medical doctors. These rates are based on the risk of injury or death to patients caused by practice procedures.
Do children need Chiropractic?
Absolutely! The normal birthing process places a tremendous amount of stress on the neck. If the baby's head presents in any other than a posterior occiput position (the baby's face is down), this can cause added stress. Any intervention such as vacuum or forceps causes additional trauma to the head and neck. Cesarean section is also considered a traumatic birth when considering the effects on the spine. Many obstetricians traction the head during a normal birth, using between 40 and 70 pounds of pressure, in order to birth the shoulder. This often causes damage to the cervical spine (neck) and the nerves that exit off the spine.
Even if you child came through the birth process without subluxations, they can be acquired afterwards. Babies neck muscles are weak and are unable to support the head. Infant car seats may be designed to protect a baby in the event of a crash, but they lack support of the neck. Whenever you stop and accelerate the car their heads go forward and back and side to side, which can cause vertebrae to subluxate.
Throughout the first year, a baby's spine will grow 50%. Whenever there is rapid growth, that is the time when things can go wrong. Regular Chiropractic checkups ensure that your child's spine is growing properly. During the first year, they also develop the secondary curves of the spine in the neck and low back. If these curves fail to develop, there is a greater chance that they will develop scoliosis, or curvature of the spine.
Towards the end of the first year they will be learning how to walk and will fall an extraordinary amount of times. If you fell that often, do you think that your spine would feel the effects of the trauma? As kids get older, they get even more active with more potential for physical trauma. And, if they play sports, that potential increases. And what about the child who sits at the computer or hunches over his hand-held game! Making sure that their spines are subluxation free means that your children can endure more physical stress with a lesser risk of injury.
Physical trauma is the most obvious reason kids need their spines checked out regularly, but emotional and toxic stress can also cause subluxations in kids. Many times children have accidents and parents may believe that they are fine because there is no external evidence of damage. Spinal subluxations sometimes don't signal an obvious symptom. The earlier children's spines are checked, the earlier problems can be detected, preventing health problems from occurring and becoming serious. We recommend all children be checked regularly for nerve interference, even without symptoms present. Prevention is the best medicine.
Just as it is recommended that children get regular medical and dental checkups, it is important for kids to have their spines checked from birth onward. The only professional qualified to do this is a Chiropractor. More and more, educated parents are choosing to take their children to Chiropractors regularly, because they see that their children are healthier and happier!
Are you against drugs and surgery?
No. There is a time for both. However, I am more interested in finding and correcting the cause of a problem rather than covering up the symptoms with a toxic chemical experiment that may cause deadly side-effects (just listen to the drug commercials!). Why not try conservative and non-invasive procedures first before cutting into the body and removing organs? Surgery is financially, emotionally, and physically dangerous and should be used only as a last resort.
I heard Chiropractic cures diseases. Is this true?
The body heals itself when it is given the tools it needs for healing, namely proper nutrition, adequate rest, physical exercise, mental and spiritual balance, and a nervous system that is working properly. Nerves control the immune system, skeletal system, respiratory system, reproductive system, digestive system, hormone (endocrine) system, and the list goes on. Chiropractic facilitates healing because it restores proper nerve function. As a chiropractor, I remove the interference to the nervous system and get out of the way...I allow the body to do what it is innately supposed to do when the channels of communication are clear. Chiropractors do not cure anything. The body cures itself if you allow it to.
How long will it take for my body to heal?
It depends on your personal history, genetics, current physical condition, level of stress, and how well you follow the chiropractic recommendations. Your body has tolerated physical, chemical, and emotional stress for years. It took years for your body to get to its current level of dis-ease. Healing is a process, and like every process in nature, healing takes time. It is arrogant to expect permanent correction of a condition instantly after we have abused the body for decades.
Why do you insist we follow the Chiropractic recommendations?
I am committed that you get the desired results quickly, the effects are long-lasting, and you do not waste your time and money. It is disappointing to see patients stop chiropractic care before they have even given their body a chance to heal, only to return weeks, months, or years later with the same problem that brought them to the office in the first place. If you only go to the gym on an irregular basis, and when you do work out, you don't follow the trainer's recommendations, who would be at fault if you did not get the results you hoped to achieve?
Why do I need to get adjusted more frequently when I first start Chiropractic?
The initial stage is designed to reduce inflammation and restore joint mobility as quickly as the body will allow. This stage addresses the symptom relief. The second phase, or wellness care, is designed to further the healing process and maintain the progress your body has already made. Using the gym example again, if after months of working out you feel and look great, is it wise to stop working out? You might not have to work out with the same intensity that got you into shape, but it would be smart to maintain your progress, right?
Do I have to get Chiropractic care for the rest of my life?
You don't have to do anything for the rest of your life - it's your choice. You can choose not to brush your teeth, not to change the oil in your car, not to make repairs to your house, not to eat a healthy diet, and not to exercise. However, there are consequences to your actions. If you want to get the most mileage out of your body, then yes, you must take care of it for the rest of your life. The spine and nervous system is no exception.
When should someone start Chiropractic care?
As soon as they are born. The point is to maintain health for your whole life, not to abuse/ignore your body for decades and then put out fires when you are in physical distress. The spine and nervous system is subject to trauma from day one until death - twisting of the neck during the birth process; falling while learning to walk and while playing; sports injuries; carrying heavy backpacks, purses, laptop computers; poor posture; driving; sitting all day; inadequate exercise; gravity; pregnancy; carrying and lifting car seats and strollers; osteoporosis; emotional stress; chemical interactions. It is never too early or too late to start chiropractic wellness care.
How long does it take to become a Chiropractor?
Four years of college, four years of graduate school, clinical internships, four state and national board licensure examinations, continuing education courses. What do you study? Everything they teach in medical school (same books, same curriculum) as well as chiropractic philosophy and chiropractic adjusting techniques. Chiropractors are primary health care providers, in the same category as general MD practitioners, dentists, and podiatrists
What are your responsibilities as a doctor?
To be the best technician, educator, communicator that I can be.
To serve with my mind, my heart, and my hands.
To create a friendly office with efficient procedures and simple/fair fee systems.
To attend monthly weekend continuing education seminars.
What are my responsibilities as a patient?
To follow your recommended care plan; to call ahead if you must reschedule an appointment; to attend the new patient orientation; to communicate with me about any concerns you might have; to adhere to your financial agreements; to refer others to the office for a free check-up; to bring family and loved ones to our dinner talk held each month; to share your results with friends and co-workers; to get your family under Chiropractic care; to help me find speaking opportunities (in your church, office, daycare, etc.) so that I can share my message of health with others.
Why is the new patient orientation important?
So you understand what Chiropractic really is and is not, learn how you can best benefit from care, find out about your own health potential, ask questions, broaden your horizons, have a wake up call, see me in action in a way you have never seen before, share Chiropractic with a friend who might be interested in getting care but who wants to find out more before deciding if Chiropractic is right for him/her.
Why are you not a provider on insurance plans?
I choose to work for what is in the best interest to the practice member, rather than being part of system that is unfair to the patients as well as to the doctors. My commitment is to focus on the practice member, and not on the bureaucracy the insurance company creates. We feel that wellness is the key and more than a bunch of numbers or tests. Health is much more than the presence or absence of symptoms. It just , lo happens that insurance co. won't pay for wellness, ccorrection or to keep you well. In addition, limitations that insurance companies dictate are never based on what the individual actually needs, as no exam was ever done by the insurance company. It is helpful that we do have a healthcare system that is excellent in trauma care, but it lacks in maintaining one's health. Lifetime wellness is needed for everyone, and that's what our office provides.
Why do you only adjust patients at certain times on of the week?
It keeps the flow going so you don't wait. Chiropractic is very physically demanding. We have specific hours for adjusting so we are concentrating exclusively on patient care, rather than marketing, insurance, accounting, etc. In between the prime adjusting times we are seeing new patients, performing re-exams on existing patients, writing reports, studying, training, returning phone calls, setting up business meetings. On Tuesday mornings and on Fridays we are either doing more of the list just mentioned, or we are giving or writing speeches, attending conferences, doing research, running errands, participating in community work, wrestling with insurance companies.
What's the bigger picture?
- Get healthy, naturally to stay well.
- Appreciate and respect your body.
- Lead a life that is full of joy, self-expression, fun, personal growth, and activity
If that's what you want, let's go for it!!!
In love and appreciation,
Dr. Jeff
|
